Railroad preservation can be a pretty thankless pursuit, especially if you try to practice it on a grand scale. Americans are oblivious to our industrial and mechanical heritage anyway, except perhaps when it comes to warplanes and warships. When you throw in the challenges of collecting and interpreting things as big and cumbersome (and expensive) as trains, you have to look pretty hard to find the necessary resources, human and otherwise.
Fortunately, for more than two decades we’ve seen the rise of an entire cohort of dedicated enthusiasts and professionals who have defied the obstacles and given us reasons to be proud. The country is richer for the gems of their efforts: the Illinois Railway Museum, Cumbres & Toltec, the B&O Railroad Museum, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, the North Carolina Transportation Museum, to name just a few.
I’ll probably ruffle some feathers when I say this, but the crown jewel is the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. I think of CSRM as our world-class national museum of railroading, our answer to the Air & Space Museum, or England’s National Railway Museum in York. Yes, CSRM is California-centric, its exhibits and collection a reflection of the Golden State. But in telling the California story, the museum immerses visitors in a universal story of railroading. Throw in its location at 125 “I” Street, beside Milepost 1 of the legendary Central Pacific, and you have an indispensable American institution.
All due credit to the taxpayers of California, the museum never would have happened without those human resources I mentioned. Fortunately CSRM attracted an especially tenacious, determined lot. Standing right at the top is Cathy Taylor, the museum’s former director and today a division chief in the California State Parks Division.
Now the railroad preservation community has recognized Cathy in a big way. At its convention October 19 in Riverside, Calif., the Association of Tourist Railroads & Railway Museums (ATRRM) honored Cathy with its first Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is richly deserved.
I’m hardly objective in this assessment. Full disclosure: Cathy and I have been friends for years, and I wrote a nominating letter to the association, recommending her for the award (Trains magazine is a longtime member of the association and one of its predecessor organizations, the Tourist Railroad Association, Inc., or TRAIN; the new ATRRM is a product of this year’s merger of TRAIN and the Association of Railway Museums).
But Cathy doesn’t need me to make her case. Her accomplishments speak for themselves. Here’s a short version of a long list: early volunteer and later administrative officer on the Sacramento Southern Railroad; program chairman for CSRM’s spectacular Railfairs of 1991 and 1999; executive director of the CSRM Foundation; a member of the TRAIN board of directors; organizer of two TRAIN conventions; a leader in the creation of the Railtown 1897 Historic Park in Jamestown, Calif.; and CSRM director from 2002 to 2007, succeeding her dear friend and colleague, the late Walter Gray.
Cathy isn’t content to be merely a white-collar professional. In those early years on the Sacramento Southern she qualified as a brakeman and fireman, learning the fine art of using a coal scoop to backfill the corners of Union Pacific 0-6-0 No. 4466’s firebox.
All this she accomplished while negotiating the swirling waters of California politics. Given the state’s problems over the past 20 years, its miraculous that Cathy and Walter and current director Paul Hammond and all their teammates have managed to protect the museum. Don’t be fooled by the massive SP 2-8-8-4 Cab Forward and those big diesels in the CSRM roundhouse: the institution is fragile. That’s especially true over the past couple of years as the museum faced new challenges to its status as a Sacramento treasure, challenges that come from interests that strike me as crass. It’s a story waiting to be told.
Meanwhile, I’m delighted that the country’s leading railroad preservation association kicked off its new Lifetime Achievement Award by honoring Cathy Taylor and, by extension, our beautiful museum on “I” Street. Her work will last for decades to come.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.